Law enforcement personnel, for instance, often use holsters, e.g., for carrying firearms or other weapons, secured to their belt using a loop of plastic, a metallic material or leather. Although useful, these arrangements are not adjustable to conform physically to the user's body, nor may they be adjusted to accommodate individual holster positioning needs of the user. Accordingly, it is considered important that the user be able to adjust (i) the distance of the holster from the point of attachment to his or her belt, (ii) the inclination of the holster relative to its vertical axis, (iii) the inclination of the holster relative to its vertical plane, and (iv) the distance of the holster's vertical plane from the point of attachment to the user's belt.
One attempt to provide a holster securement device that allows a user to adjust the inclination of the holster comprises a loop portion engageable with the user's belt, a connection portion inclined relative to the loop portions, and a base extending from the free end of the connection portion. The base preferably has a disc member to which the holster may be pivotally secured. In addition, a row of equally spaced pins extends along an edge of the disc member and from one of the member faces. A tooth may be snapped into the spaces between any chosen pair of the pins, thus preventing any further rotation thereof. Also, the tooth is joined to a sliding arm such that the tooth may be disengaged from the pins by pressing an end of the arm. This allows the disc member to be freely rotated upwardly to a desired angular position of the holster. While such arrangements, it has been found, generally operate satisfactorily, the rotation unlocking device is often difficult to operate, especially when the user wears gloves and the locking of the rotation is not sufficiently stables, such as when the holster bumps against an adjacent object on the user's belt, a portion of the user's body, or other obstacle.
Such holster securement devices also permit the height of the holster, i.e., the distance of the holster from the belt, to be varied. This variation is made possible because the disc member for adjusting the holster's inclination is secured to a sliding plate mounted to the base of the securement device and, thereby, arrangeable into at least two positions where the holster is at different distances from the belt. In this manner, the distance of the holster from the belt can be adjusted. While useful, varying the distance in this way, it has been founds, increases the thickness and, therefore, is an encumbrance to the holster securement device. Furthermore, when it is unnecessary to carry a weapon, for instance, while the user is at the office, the entire holster securement device is detached from the user's belt, even after the holster has been removed. This has been found both bothersome to the user and uncomfortable, given the encumbrance of the securement device.
Another conventional securement device for holsters provides a double-jointed connection between the loop attachment and the base to which the holster is secured. This connection includes a substantially double-T shaped joint hinged both to the loop attachment and the base of the holster securement device. It is, therefore, possible to adjust both the inclination of the plane of the base relative to the plane of the loop attachment and the distance between these two planes. Disadvantageously, however, this adjustment can only be accomplished using a tool to turn the screws that lock the hinges. Adjustment of such an arrangement is, therefore, considered laborious and problematic when it must be done, but an appropriate tool is not available.